Greenbacker Development Opportunities expands private equity investment team
New York, NY, October 11, 2023 – Greenbacker Capital Management, LLC (“GCM” or “Greenbacker”), a leading renewable energy asset manager, is pleased to announce that it has expanded its private equity investment team, keeping up with its growing activity in the middle market of sustainable infrastructure. Most notably, Rahul Bhalodia has joined the firm as a managing director of the Greenbacker Development Opportunities (“GDEV”) strategy. Bhalodia’s addition augments the firm’s ability to continue scaling the strategy, which invests in growth-stage sustainable infrastructure development platforms.
Along with managing director and group head Ben Baker, who joined Greenbacker in 2020 to launch the strategy, Bhalodia will lead origination, execution, investment management, and capital raising for GDEV. He brings over two decades of investment experience in renewables and the energy transition, during which he managed real assets, growth equity, and venture capital investments. Before joining GCM, Bhalodia’s career included investing in scaled developer platforms across geographies at CPP Investments, building out Constellation Energy’s growth and venture investment business, and repositioning power generation portfolios toward renewable energy at Goldman Sachs.
“Rahul’s track record identifying, incubating, and scaling energy transition infrastructure companies at an inflection point in their growth makes him an excellent addition to Greenbacker and to the GDEV team,” said Ben Baker. “His perspective and experience bolster our existing capabilities. In fact, he’s already made an impressive impact, significantly expanding our activities in the commercial and industrial solar space.”
Bhalodia recently finalized Greenbacker’s equity investment in Telyon, a renewable energy developer and leader in the C&I solar sector; Bhalodia also represents Greenbacker as a Telyon board director. The partnership, which gives Greenbacker a significant minority stake in the company, will expand Telyon’s capabilities to grow its platform and execute on its nationwide project pipeline.
“Greenbacker’s deep knowledge of infrastructure project development, structured finance, and operations in the energy transition space is differentiated in the market,” Bhalodia said. “I’m excited to leverage and add to the wealth of renewables expertise in Greenbacker’s asset management platform, to continue scaling the firm’s private equity franchise, and to support our middle market sustainable infrastructure partners along their growth trajectory.”
Bhalodia joins Greenbacker during a period of significant growth for the GDEV strategy. The team has also added two new associates, Lea Beylot-Lacroix and Rushabh Nahar, to support GDEV’s efforts to identify and partner with leading development teams, fund their growth, and help them scale into mature platforms.
Beylot-Lacroix joins from CohnReznick Capital, where her responsibilities included financial modeling, due diligence, and transaction management for renewable energy project finance and M&A transactions. She earned an MS in Civil and Environmental Engineering from Stanford University and an MS in Mechanical Engineering from Arts et Métiers ParisTech.
Nahar joins from Riverbend Energy Group, where he focused on financial modeling, due diligence, and origination of energy transition opportunities. He also has experience in the waste-to-value, green hydrogen, and carbon capture sectors. Nahar earned his MS in Operations Research from Columbia University and a BS in Mathematics from Fergusson College.
GDEV invests in sustainable infrastructure platforms, with a focus on renewable energy, storage, grid services, and mobility. GDEV may also consider investments in broader sustainability and the circular economy. GDEV’s first vehicle completed a ~$150 million capital raise in early 2022, which was successfully deployed across sustainable infrastructure platforms in the solar, hydro, battery storage, and industrial decarbonization sectors.
